Dog Behaviour Advice - Dog Advice Articles

Aims and Objectives

I often hear people saying dog training is easy so why do we need to go to
obedience clubs. We do not want to walk down the street as if we are in a competition.
We have trained dogs for thousand of years and most are reasonably well behaved.
I quite agree but why do we still see so many dogs failing to behave. We see
dogs prepared to fight other dogs or cats or frighten humans go to the toilet
anywhere, fight under the tables at bars and restaurants and always taking
their owners for walks. We see so many variations of dog leads to even using
tracking harnesses and we also see the infinity lead where the owner is on
one side the street whilst the dog is on the other. The closest thing I have
had to this was a tape measure that when you pressed the button it retracted
and if I was not careful received a nasty cut. Do these leads have the same
facility so a press of the button and zip the dog is back in your hand?

What are we trying to achieve and what should it look like? I entered a house
one day and faced a monumental tip but the owner believed all people lived
in the same fashion. Simply he had never seen a tidy house. It therefore follows
if you have not seen something better, you must assume yours is the norm. With
the influx of so many people into Spain who have seen better standards of sociable
dogs, the demand now follows for owners to improve their dogs to conform to
our new standards. There are now, and quite rightly, bylaws for no fowling
the street, owners must keep dogs on leads and dogs no longer allowed in many
more restaurants. There is no sign that you can walk the street with a loaded
gun we just know if you did that the police would arrest you and yet there
are dog owners doing precisely that. They may or may not be aware of the danger
their dog is to other members of society but any dog that growls at a human
and in particular, a child is a potential lethal gun. The question is how to
improve the situation to reach the standard that we would all like to see.
We have solved part of this as with the untidy man we know and have seen what
tidy looks like. The only next step is how to achieve it.

For better sociable dogs, must we all attend obedience classes? No. Whilst
most Police dogs and civilian dog handlers always attended their local Canine
Road Safety training classes this was in part public relations but most importantly
sociability training. Where else could we practice with uncontrolled dogs?
Part of any dog training classes requires the dogs becoming sociable with other
people and other dogs. Here they learn a degree of general obedience training
that most people would use in their daily lives. How to teach a dog to walk
by your side without pulling on the lead. To sit or to go down or to stay and
drop down if say a car was coming. To be friendly to other people and not to
attack anything that moves. Improving sociability in dogs is now very important
and why all obedience clubs in the UK include a general sociability class.
One thing we must understand that in such classes the instructor teaches the
handler to teach their dog. They do not teach the dog. In Australia, unless
you have attended a socialisation class and achieved the required standard
you cannot let your dog off the lead in a public place. I love the country
already. We all owe it to each other to obtain a reasonable standard of sociability
but how to set about achieving it.

You do not need to attend formal training classes to make dogs sociable. Dogs
are naturally sociable if you teach them who to be sociable with but errors
do occur in the way we teach them and then things can go so terribly wrong.
Most dogs are easily trained and very sociable being quite happy with their
place in life at being fed and having to do nothing at all but being the usual
lovable pet. It is a dog’s life. The remainder in varying degrees do
cause problems where classes can stop ant-social behaviour. You could simply
form groups of people who all go for walks on certain days or have a barbeque
evening for all dog owners. What this does is bring all the dogs together and
where they must become friendly with one another and other people. You are
making it possible for dogs to be unsociable but being alert to any such signs
you can nip such tendencies in the bud. If a dog does something right like
not attacking the nearest dog give it a piece of burger and it will soon understand
and look forward to such meetings. You may encounter some jostling between
the dogs as they set their position in the hierarchy of the increasing size
of the pack so do not jump in too soon as this is usually harmless. You may
notice that size to dogs does not matter. A little dog will stand up against
a big dog if it has to. An advantage by such meetings is the owners need not
feel embarrassed when their dogs show bad behaviour because you are all together
attempting to cure such problems. If you do have a dog that is becoming anti-social
then the worst thing is go home and keep your dog away from people as this
only make matters worse. Do not feel ashamed to admit your dog may have a problem
we have all been there and there is usually a simple remedy. It is a very good
idea to take your dogs to each other’s houses and make them behave. If
you have a dog that objects to people entering your home then he is on the
receiving end if it has to go to some one else’s home. One other important
point is when you see a holiday maker and it maybe their only time in your
area then introduce yourself and your dog to them. As far as the dog is concerned,
this is a new stranger and could be barked at or even attacked. If your dog
is keen on jumping up to greet the person, tell them to avert their eyes from
the dog and remain sideways on to your dog. This tells your dog you are in
control of the meeting now and stand down.

You may have noticed I have not said anything about anti-attack dog-training
classes and that is because none exist. There is no need because a sociable
dog does not need to attack. Sociability classes or groups or whatever sort
that brings dogs and handlers together takes care of dogs that were showing
attack tendencies. All ages of dogs can attend such classes and yes, you can
teach old dogs new tricks.

Most people believe in order to train a dog successfully you need endless
patience, perseverance and slow to temper plus a pocket of tit bits. The answer
to these is NO. You do not even need a dog. I do not train anybody’s
dogs except my own. Reading my articles you could help your next-door neighbour
whose dog keeps barking or whatever how to cure it. A simple experiment for
you to try when you meet someone’s dog is just lick the palm of your
hand and offer it to the dog to smell then look away so no further eye-to-eye
contact. Do not bend or stoop down. It will stop barking and jumping up and
probably walk away content with the introduction. Another useful tip is how
to stop dogs jumping up and licking your face. This is in fact a normal ritual
greeting of subordinate dogs and wolves to their recognised leader to seek
attention but not exactly hygienic. Simply tell the owner they do this after
they have licked their own bums. That one never fails. The correct way is to
avert your eye-to-eye contact and turn sideways showing a dismissive body stance
to the licking dog. After a while, they do get the message.

In this first article, I have simply restated the aims and objectives we all
are seeking and assure you that they are easy to achieve. Men and dogs have
worked together for a long time for mutual benefit but man has evolved far
beyond his basic brain the dogs have not. Mans greatest leap in evolution was
to read and write and so pass on to the future the failures and successes of
the past. This saved us reinventing the wheel in each generation. If I wish
to teach my dog drug detection and having little patience myself, I simply
read the foremost writer on the subject and follow the accepted guidelines.

Next week I will introduce you to understanding what a dog is thinking to
help you train them in the basics and the dogs most important and simple question
to everything, if I do this what is in it for me.